How does this system look?

[tony4704]

Hi all, here is the system that I am looking to build very soon. I just wanted any feedback on some of the parts I chose. thanks.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming, Cubase, some photoshop and regular web browsing

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$1200-1500

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US - newegg most likely

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Intel and Nvidia

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Just my case which is the Full ATX thermalTake Armor case and my monitor/keyboard/mouse

*

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Will slightly overclock probably

8. What resolution will you be using?

1920x1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

Next two weeks

System below
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.:. Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 Quad-Core Desktop Processor
.:. Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
.:. COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+
.:. OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
.:. ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
.:. ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
.:. XFX 850W PRO850W XXX Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Silve
.:. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL (Whats the difference between X series and regular?)
.:. SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
.:. LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit

~$1400

 

[lehtv]

CPU Good.

Thermal compound If you want an improvement over stock cooling, buy an aftermarket cooler. I don't recommend OC with stock cooling.

SSD Vertex 3 is pretty affordable but it's a Sandforce drive. Crucial M4 $125 is based on Micron's (=company behind the brand Crucial) own controller and it's known to be not just fast, but highly reliable.

GPU Good but I'd prefer Asus over that. Superior cooling, custom PCB. On the other hand it wouldn't be wrong to combo the EVGA card with this.

Mobo I don't recommend MSI if I can avoid it... I don't have personal experience or hard data, but people seem to think it's not so reliable as Asus, Asrock and Gigabyte. That particular board is also pretty expensive - how about Gigabyte Z77X-D3H $145?

PSU Too powerful for 670 SLI and also pretty expensive. 670 SLI is fine on a 750W unit, 850W if you overclock heavily (including considerable overvolts). Here's a nice find: XFX 850W XXX $130 ($110 AR) 80+Silver Semi-modular (also built by Seasonic)

RAM Fast RAM doesn't really have noticeable practical benefit, though it's not noticeably more expensive either. But two of these Samsung 4GB modules are $48, low profile (won't interfere with any CPU cooler) and consistently overclock to 2133MHz CL10 ~1.5V.

HDD I'd prefer Samsung F4 2TB 5400RPM $120. I have it myself and it's quiet, cool and pretty fast, and newegg says it's a 5x winner for the internal hdd customer choice award.

ODD Good.

OS Why Win 7 Pro? You should be fine with max 16GB RAM. Or do you need other features only present in Pro and above? Home Premium would save $40.

 

[tony4704]

Thanks for the suggestions lehtv, I will probably leave my original choice for SSD (because I am buying it from a friend for cheap), memory and OS though. Everything else you suggested I will change.

How about this for the MoBo then?
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Would prefer Asus or Asrock to gigabyte.

Also would the H60 be good for the CPU cooling or would I be better off with Air cooling?

 

[lehtv]

That's a good mobo as well.

I think you get better results for the price with an air cooler than a contained water cooler, especially seeing as you're only considering a slight OC. Here's a good one: Hyper 212 Evo $34

 

[ShintaiDK]

Forget the 2133 memory. It wont make a single difference in gaming etc.

And get 1.5V memory.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the suggestions lehtv, I will probably leave my original choice for SSD (because I am buying it from a friend for cheap), memory and OS though.

OK, I definitely understand getting the SSD from a friend if he's willing to sell it to you for significantly under market price.

However, I'm interested in your reasoning behind wanting to keep the memory and OS that you have listed. As it stands now, it seems like you want to pay more for no benefit.

 

[tony4704]

OK, I definitely understand getting the SSD from a friend if he's willing to sell it to you for significantly under market price.

However, I'm interested in your reasoning behind wanting to keep the memory and OS that you have listed. As it stands now, it seems like you want to pay more for no benefit.

Nope, gonna switch the memory now too. There was a combo deal on newegg I was going to take advantage of, the PSU listed and the memory listed in my original post for $180 with 20 mail in rebate (so 160). The PSU and memory recommended by the other poster were $110 for the XFX and the memory $46, totalling $156. So, its basically the same price. But, I think I like that PSU better now (XFX) and if the memory speed makes really no diff. then I'll get the slower memory.

The OS, I just always hear everyone getting Pro so I figured for $40 I don't want a lowly Home edition


Initial post updated now to reflect the changes.

 

[mfenn]

The OS, I just always hear everyone getting Pro so I figured for $40 I don't want a lowly Home edition

Lol :awe: Do you actually need any specific feature of the Pro edition?

 

[tony4704]

Lol :awe: Do you actually need any specific feature of the Pro edition?

Nope. After looking here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare
I will not use any of that.

 

[tony4704]

Just noticed that the HDD recommended is a 3.0Gb/s drive. Any reason to choose this over a 6.0Gb/s one like I had originally picked?

ie
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

for $120

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Just noticed that the HDD recommended is a 3.0Gb/s drive. Any reason to choose this over a 6.0Gb/s one like I had originally picked?

ie
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

for $120

Ew. Green drives.

 

[lehtv]

Neither drive saturates the bandwidth of SATA 1.5gb/s not to mention 3gb/s. The Caviar is just a newer drive - it doesn't cost any more for the manufacturer to use a 6gb/s controller (could even cost less due to higher demand) and it's good for marketing.

It's possible the Caviar is slightly faster due to being newer and thus more fine-tuned technology. Honestly, you won't go wrong with either.

 

[lehtv]

Ew. Green drives.

Nothing wrong with $0.06 / GB

 

[tony4704]

thanks.

 

[jacosajh]

Since you're getting an SSD, any HDD will really do.

Unless you plan on putting applications, games, etc. on the HDD.

Everything else looks ok although you're still paying for more than you need on most things.

 

[lehtv]

Unless you plan on putting applications, games, etc. on the HDD.

Even then it should do. I've got plenty of games installed on the Samsung F4, no complaints

 

[tony4704]

Great thanks. Ordered most everything now. waiting on vidcard to come back in stock.

thanks again guys for all your help/input.

 

[jacosajh]

Even then it should do. I've got plenty of games installed on the Samsung F4, no complaints

Some games that load a lot of crap from the HDD (like a lot of the single-player SW games) can really benefit from a faster HDD if you don't put it on an SSD. Atleast it would be enough that I could justify spending a little extra.

One of the last SW (not TOR); took about 2 minutes to load some sections on a Samsung F3 for me.

 

[lehtv]

I don't contest that... There are definitely games that just have ridiculous load times on most HDDs. The ones I have installed - Skyrim, Rage, Crysis 2 (online play), also BF3 beta I had installed last year, all got decent load times. E.g. in Skyrim it's just enough time to read the bits of info in load screens.